A Sketch of the Private Life and Personal and Scientific Character 



PROF, AMOS HENRY WORTHEN, 



BY N. W. BLISS. 



Prof. AMOS HENRY AVORTHEX, State Geologist of Illinois and 

 Curator of the State Historical Library and Museum of Natural 

 History, died at his home in Warsaw, Hancock county, Illinois, 

 on Sunday. May 6, 1888, of pneumonia, at the ripe age of 

 nearly seventy-five years. For over thirty years he had been 

 constantly engaged, first, in the survey of, and then in writing 

 and publishing the reports upon, the geology of his great 

 adopted State; and his work has been of such a thorough and 

 able character, that while it has made for him a name honored 

 among the scientists of the world, his volumes have long been 

 text books of palseontological nomenclature. Just prior to his 

 death he had completed and prepared for publication his eighth 

 and final volume of Reports upon the Geology of Illinois, and 

 was anticipating a period of rest as soon as by means of a 

 suitable appropriation this final volume should be published 

 and off his hands, having determined then to resign the place 

 in the service of the State which he had so long and ably filled. 

 But death came all too soon and found the busy man still in 

 harness, and the period of earthly activity was exchanged for 

 one of heavenly rest. 



Amos Henry Worthen was born at Bradford, Orange county, 

 Vermont, October 31, 1813. He was the son of Thomas Wor- 

 then and Susannah Adams, his wife, and was the younir* j st. 

 save one, of a large family of thirteen children. His mother, 



